Internetsehat Parentalguide

1 Get Parental Controls Product Guide 2010
Parental Controls Product Guide

2010 Edition
GetParentalControls.org
The Independent Guide to Online Safety Technology
What are Parental Controls? 3

An Overview of Parental Controls: Internet, Mobile Phones, Gaming Consoles, and Media Players 4
What parental controls do I need? 5-7
Up to 7 years old 5
Age 8 to 10 years old 6
Using the GetParentalControls.org Product Comparisons 8
Internet parental controls 9-11
The Options: Parental Control Software, Security Suites, ISP controls, Operating System, Routers, Online Controls 9
Filtering and Monitoring 10
Search Engines, E-mail, Instant Messaging, Social Networks, Video Sharing, and Virtual Worlds 11
Internet Parental Controls Product Comparisons 12-20
Internet Parental Controls Product Comparison 12
ISP Provided Parental Controls Product Comparison 14
E-mail Parental Controls Product Comparison 15
Social networking Parental Controls Product Comparison 16
Instant Messaging Parental Controls Product Comparison 17
Search Engine Parental Controls Product Comparison 18
Virtual Worlds Parental Controls Product Comparison 19
Video and Photo Sharing Sites Parental Controls Product Comparison 20
Kid Safe Browsers Product Comparison 21
Mobile Phone Parental Controls 22
Gaming Console Parental Controls 23
Media Player Parental Controls 24
Using Parental Controls to Address Specific Safety Issues: Cyberbullying, Sexting, Privacy, and Predators 25
About GetParentalControls.org 27
Internet Parental Controls Reviews 28-35
Kid Safe Brower Reviews 36
Mobile Phone Parental Controls Reviews 37
What are Parental Controls?

The Internet has grown quickly in recent years, adding undreamed of services that
enrich our children’s lives. Unfortunately, these new technologies have also brought
undreamed of concerns for parents – sexting, cyberbullying, Internet pornography, and
online predators.
Fortunately, technology has also provided parents with some help – parental controls.
Parental controls are tools embedded in computers and other electronic devices that
allow parents to set limits for their children on how these products are used. Parental
controls can help shield children from unwanted contact, restrict their access to
inappropriate material, inform you of troublesome online behavior, and help to
prevent the sharing of private information.
Of course, it would be wonderful if parents could simply purchase a set of “controls”
that would instruct children in online safety and screen out dangers. While no piece of
software can do all of this, parental controls combined with online safety education
and some common sense rules for Internet use are a parent’s best strategy for keeping
children safe online. Parents must always keep in mind that parental controls are tools,
and are not a substitute for parental involvement and safety education.
Parental controls provide one or more of five main functions: content filtering; use restrictions; contact management; privacy protections; and
monitoring. Here is a brief overview of each area:
Content Filtering
Content restrictions are most often included in Internet parental controls, especially the ability to limit specific types of web sites deemed
inappropriate for children. Content filtering is also included in gaming consoles to restrict access to mature video games, as well as media
players to restrict access to music with explicit lyrics.
Use Restrictions
Use restrictions are limits on which features or programs of a device a child can use. Internet use restrictions can include blocking applications
like e-mail or instant messaging. Gaming consoles and mobile phones can limit functions like Internet access or the ability to purchase items
online, or block the ability to use functions like a camera. Use restrictions also include time management functions that allow parents to limit
the times a child is allowed to use a device.
Contact Management
Contact management functions allow parents to control who can contact a child through communication methods such mobile phones, e-mail,
instant messaging, or social networks. Contact management usually involves the parent managing a “white list” of approved e-mail addresses or
phone numbers that are allowed to contact the child. Many contact management functions also include “black lists” where the parent or child
can “black list” a phone number or e-mail address so it can no longer contact the child.
Privacy Protections
Content filtering and contact management focus on blocking incoming information, privacy protections focus on blocking outgoing information.
Privacy protections include the ability to block the release of information the parent has deemed private, such as home address or phone
number, or GPS data from a mobile phone that reveals location.
Monitoring
Monitoring enables the parent to record information about the child’s activities online. Monitoring functions can include recording website
visits, mobile phone call logs, e-mail exchanges or instant messaging transcripts, and even complete “screen capture” recordings that detail
every activity online.
An Overview of Parental Controls: Internet, Mobile Phones, Gaming Consoles, and Media Players
Internet
Internet parental controls are widely available through a number of mediums, including both the Windows and Mac operating systems; through
Internet Service Providers; as software packages; as free online services; and as a feature of anti-virus security suites. Most products are at
their core either filtering products that offer specialized categories of websites for blocking or monitoring, or monitoring products that focus on
creating a detailed record of Internet activity and offer very basic filtering. In addition to filtering and monitoring, common features include the
ability to block certain applications such as e-mail, limiting contacts, and time management.
Mobile Phones
As mobile phones had added features and online access, most of the same cautions that should be taken with Internet access should also apply
to phones. Mobile phones also carry the potential problem of “sexting” – the sending of sexual images via mobile phone cameras. Fortunately,
all major mobile phone providers in the United States offer parental controls, though features vary and there is usually a small monthly fee in
addition to the charges for the phone itself. Some phones such as Firefly and Kajeet are specifically designed for children, and offer much tighter
controls and are especially good for younger children. Monitoring of mobile calls and messages is a controversial area of online safety, as this
involves privacy concerns but may be necessary in some circumstances. Mobile phone providers have chosen to not offer monitoring
capabilities, which they have left to software companies. Unless you want to monitor text messages and e-mail sent via mobile phone, there
really is little reason to buy additional software, since mobile providers typically offer the most popular features.
Gaming Consoles
Many parents don’t realize that a gaming console can also be an Internet gateway – including to the web and chat rooms. Some gaming
consoles can be used to watch DVDs or TV as well. Fortunately, all major gaming consoles now come with parental controls – no need to buy or
even download anything. Different gaming consoles offer different options, but all offer the ability to enforce the ESRB game ratings, as well as
shut off Internet access, making them safe for even young children.
Media Players
Media players such as the iPod were originally designed to play MP3 music files, so the only parental concern was restricting music with explicit
lyrics. However, the newest generation of media players are now packed with features that allow the playing of movies and in some cases
Internet access. Of the four most popular media player manufacturers, only Microsoft’s Zune and Apple’s iPod offer any parental controls at all.
What parental controls do I need?

There are three big issues to consider when selecting parental
controls: you may need to use multiple parental controls,
especially if you have teens; there is a wide range of quality
and functionality in parental controls; different ages of
children have greatly different parental control needs.
Multiple Products, Multiple Controls
Every product such as computers, cell phones, gaming
consoles, and media players requires its own set of parental
controls. Most of these controls are different, even for the
same types of products, so parents must understand and
configure multiple controls for multiple products.
Unfortunately, there is no “super parental control” yet that
parents can buy to configure all their devices and settings in
one place. Until the technology industry is able to fix this
problem, parents – particularly those of teens – will need to
manage multiple controls.
Quality and Features
There are no government or industry standards for what parental controls should include, and there is no minimum quality bar for performance.
Anyone can create a product and call it “parental controls.” While some of these products are very good, others are mediocre and a few are
awful – so it’s “buyer beware.” Addressing the issue of quality is a primary reason for GetParentalControls.org -- to help provide parents with
unbiased information about what products they really need, and which products really work. Pages 12-24 of this guide contain detailed product
comparisons that contrast products on the basis of price, features, and ranking by independent reviews in publications such as PC Magazine and
Computer Shopper. Pages 28-37, provide summaries of all of these reviews.
Different Ages, Different Needs
There is no “one size fits all” parental control that is appropriate for all families, as different children will have different needs. The best way to
determine which controls are most appropriate is by age.
Up to 7 years old
Internet Parental Controls: Use the parental controls in your Windows or Macintosh computer or the parental controls provided by your ISP on
the most restrictive setting. You can buy a more sophisticated parental control package if you like, but it’s not necessary. Use a kid-friendly
Internet browser, such as KidZui or Kid’oz, (See the section on “Kid Safe Browsers – Product Comparison” on page 21) or simply direct children to
age-appropriate sites and virtual worlds. Children this age generally don’t need e-mail, instant messaging, or social networks. Direct kids to
kid-friendly search engines such as Kids.Yahoo.com.
Mobile Phone Parental Controls: Mobile phones are generally not appropriate for children in this age group.
Gaming Console Parental Controls: Use parental controls included in gaming consoles to enforce age-appropriate game ratings, and disable
Internet access.
Media Player Parental Controls: Media players are generally not appropriate for children in this age group.
In addition to parental controls, some appropriate guidelines for children this age include:
 Talk your kids about appropriate use of the Internet.
 Use the Internet with your children.
 Keep computers in the living room or family room where you can monitor use.
 Have children remain anonymous while on the Internet, using a nickname for online resources such as virtual worlds.
Age 8 to 10 years Old

Internet Parental Controls: Purchase a fully-featured parental control product such as Cyber Patrol, Net Nanny, Safe Eyes, Norton Family or
McAfee Family. Enable web filtering and web monitoring of inappropriate sites and safe search controls in your filter and on the most popular
search engines, and consider blocking instant messaging, e-mail, social networking sites and Peer-to- Peer software. If you want your children to
use e-mail, make sure they have an account with contact management so you control who can contact your child. (See the section on “Internet
Parental Controls – Product Comparison” on page 12.)
Mobile Phone Parental Controls: If your child needs a mobile phone, purchase a phone specifically designed for children such as Kajeet or
Firefly that has a contact management and restrictions on Internet access. (See the section on “Mobile Phone Parental Controls – Product
Comparison” on page 22.)
Gaming Console Parental Controls: Use the parental controls included in gaming consoles to enforce age-appropriate game ratings, and disable
Internet access.
Media Player Parental Controls: Make sure the media player does not have Internet access, and set to block music with explicit lyrics.
 Create a set of rules for using the Internet for your children.
 Get to know what your children are doing online.
 Have children remain anonymous while on the Internet, using a nickname for online resources such as virtual worlds.
Age 11 to 13 years old

Internet Parental Controls: Purchase a fully-featured parental control product such as Cyber Patrol, Net Nanny, Safe Eyes, Norton Family or
McAfee Family. Enable web filtering and web monitoring of inappropriate sites and Safe Search controls, and consider blocking instant
messaging, e-mail, social networking sites and Peer-to- Peer software. If you want your child to use e-mail, make sure he has an account with
contact management so you can control who can contact your child. Do not allow your child to register for adult and teen oriented social
networks. (See the section on “Internet Parental Controls – Product Comparison” on page 12.)
Mobile Phone Parental Controls: Purchase a mobile phone with a contact white list and a GPS locator. Block sending photos, Internet access
and texting. (See the section on “Mobile Phone Parental Controls – Product Comparison” on page 22.)
Gaming Console Parental Controls: Use parental controls included in gaming consoles to enforce age-appropriate game ratings, use online
interactive features with caution, implement a contact management “white list” to limit online contacts through games.
Media Player Parental Controls: Make sure the media player does not have Internet access and block explicit lyrics.
 Create a set of rules for using the Internet for your children.
 Get to know what your children are doing on line, and talk to them about their online activities.
 Teach your children to be cautious about giving out personal information, and interacting with anyone they don’t know.
Age 14 to 17 years old

Internet Parental Controls: Enable minimal filtering of inappropriate sites with either operating system parental controls, ISP controls, or a fully
featured product. Consider a sophisticated monitoring product such as Spector Pro, IamBigBrother, or PC Pandora. Lock down filtering of search
engines. Choose virtual worlds and social networks with caution – some are not appropriate for minors. (See the section on “Internet Parental
Controls – Product Comparison” on page 12.)
Mobile Phone Parental Controls: Purchase a mobile phone with usage restrictions and a GPS locator. Consider either blocking Internet access,
and consider a separate mobile phone monitoring product. (See the section on “Mobile Phone Parental Controls – Product Comparison” on
page 22.)
Gaming Console Parental Controls: Use parental controls included in gaming consoles to enforce age-appropriate game ratings, use online
interactive features with caution.
Media Player Parental Controls: Make sure the media player does not have Internet access and block explicit lyrics.
In addition to parental controls, some appropriate guidelines for teens include:
 Teach your teen about privacy and giving out personal information on online profiles and websites.
 Teach your teen about proper online behavior, and to avoid spreading gossip, bullying, and sharing inappropriate information.
 Insist on meeting in person any “online friend” your teen wants to meet.
 Create a set of rules for using the Internet.
 Get to know what your teens are doing on line, and talk to them about their online activities.
 Talk to your kids about healthy sexuality and online pornography.
Using our Product Comparisons

In order to help you decide which specific products are right for you, we’ve created the GetParentalControls.org Product Comparisons. The
Product Comparisons provide you with detailed information comparing individual parental control products and parental control features within
products and groups of products. The Internet Parental Controls Product Comparison covers all controls for PCs in general, and individual
Internet guides give more detailed views of Internet products such as e-mail and instant messaging. The Product Comparisons also addresses
parental controls in non-PC devices, including mobile phones, media players, and gaming consoles.
Features of the Product Comparisons:

 Overview. Each blue box “Overview” section gives an
overview of the state of parental controls for the product
category.
 We Recommend. Age-based recommendations for
products and features.
 Important Features. Description of the important features
and functionality.
 Product Table. The product table compares the known
products in the product category based on all the important
features.
 Average Reviews. The Average Reviews column in the
product table provides an average for published product
reviews, based on a rating of one to five stars. The full list
of product reviews can be found in our Product Reviews
section on pages 28-35.
Internet parental controls

The Options: Parental Control Software, Security Suites, ISP controls, Operating System Controls, Online Controls, Router Controls
Before you select Internet parental controls, you’ll need to think about which of the five separate “purchase options” best suites your needs.
Parental Control Software
Parental control software packages such as Cyber Patrol, Net Nanny, and Safe Eyes generally offer the most features, best security, and best
quality web filtering. They are best suited for elementary and middle school age children. See the product comparison chart on page 12.
Advantages: Most features; Best quality filtering; Options for controlling web, IM and e-mail; Usually includes contact management
Disadvantages: Requires extra software purchase and installation; May slow down PC; Cost usually about $40 per year
Security Suites that Include Parental Controls
Security suites are comprehensive home security products produced by security companies such as Trend Micro, Symantec, and Panda. These
products typically offer only very basic filtering, so they may be suitable for use when you have young children or older teens, and just want
basic content filtering. See the product comparison chart on page 12.
Advantages: No need to buy multiple security products; Simple management
Disadvantages: Lack features for e-mail, IM, contact management; Often lower quality filtering
ISP Provided Parental Controls
Parental controls provided by ISP are usually free, but they also tend to lack many features. See the ISP product comparison chart on page 14.
Advantages: Free; Easy to manage; Some have good quality filtering
Disadvantages: Sometimes easily overridden; Lack features for e-mail, IM, contact management
Operating System Provided Parental Controls
The parental controls provided by Windows Vista and Windows 7, as well as the Mac OS X, offer basic filtering, monitoring, and time
management. This is often enough for homes with young children, but usually won’t be sufficient for older grade school and middle school age
children. See the product comparison chart on page 12.
Advantages: Free; Simple management
Disadvantages: Lack features for e-mail, IM, contact management; Often lower quality filtering
Online Parental Controls
Companies such as OpenDNS and Livia offer filtering over the Internet. This tends to much easier to manage and low maintenance with high
quality filtering. See the product comparison chart on page 12.
Advantages: Faster; Less management; No software to install; Same quality filtering as parental control software
Disadvantages: Lack features for e-mail, IM, contact management; Lack most monitoring features; May be easier to override
Router-based Parental Controls
iBoss and D-Link are two companies that build home network routers with built in parental controls. These are good if you have multiple
computers in your home – no need to configure each one. Being a new type of product however, they lack many features. See the product
comparison chart on page 12.
Advantages: Protects entire home network; Harder to circumvent

Disadvantages: Lack features for e-mail, IM, contact management; More difficult to configure and administer
Filtering and Monitoring

Regardless of which “purchase option” you choose for Internet parental controls, you will probably want to make a philosophical decision about
whether you want to manage your child’s Internet access mostly with filtering or mostly with monitoring. Most products are at their core either
filtering products that offer specialized categories of websites for blocking or monitoring, or monitoring products that focus on creating a
detailed record of Internet activity and offer very basic filtering. If you want both detailed filtering and monitoring, you will need to purchase
two products.
Filtering Products
Products that specialize in filtering such as Cyber Patrol, Safe Eyes, and Net Nanny offer rich options for blocking specific types of content. These
products typically offer between 10 and 30 separate filtering categories, such as pornography, violence, hate speech, social networking sites, etc.
This level of control allows you to fine-tune Internet filtering for different age levels and different needs. Nearly all filtering products provide
basic monitoring and will provide you with a list of websites a child has visited, along with the category of websites visited. What filtering
products do not do is provide you with very detailed reports of online activity. For example, if your child spends several hours at a social
networking site posting photos, engaging in chat, and sending e-mails, most filtering products will only report to you that the child visited a
social networking site – nothing more.
Monitoring Products
Products that specialize in monitoring such as Spector Pro, IAmBigBrother, PC Pandora, and Web Watcher offer richly detailed monitoring and
reporting capabilities far beyond what the filtering products offer. These products will literally record every keystroke and action, and some
allow you have a “Tivo” type playback recording of all activity, including instant messages, e-mails, and even e-mail attachments. Not
surprisingly, some privacy advocates have expressed concern about the potential for abuse of these products, particularly since most of them
will run in “stealth mode” – invisible to the end user. Most safety advocates recommend using monitoring carefully, and unless you suspect your
child is at risk for abuse, “stealth mode” should be off limits. Some monitoring products will send you and e-mail alert if the monitoring detects
suspicious activity like the use of profanity or visiting inappropriate websites, and this type of “alert-only monitoring” can be a good compromise
solution for use with older teens.
Many monitoring products do say they offer “the ability to block websites,” but these products do not offer lists of websites to block – what
they mean is that you can enter the names of website you want block. Obviously, if your goal is to screen specific types of content from your
child, this type of “filtering” is not very useful.
Filtering and Monitoring Products -- Coming Soon?
Ideally, parental control products would offer both detailed filtering and monitoring. Recognizing this problem, a new generation of combined
filtering and monitoring products are starting to emerge. Symantec now offers OnlineFamily.Norton, and McAfee recently released McAfee
Family Protection. These products offer traditional filtering categories, along with more detailed monitoring and reporting of online activities,
particularly social networking. But both OnlineFamily.Norton and McAfee Family Protection do not yet offer the type of detailed “recordings”
and screen capture abilities of Spector Pro or PC Pandora.
Search Engines, E-mail, Instant Messaging, Social Networks, Video Sharing, and Virtual Worlds
In addition to blocking and monitoring web sites, the diverse nature of the Internet presents a number of special challenges for parents. For
example, some parental control products do a very good job of blocking websites, but don’t have tools for managing e-mail or social networks.
Search Engines
All popular search engines offer parental controls, which typically block search results by using keywords and site black lists. The filtering of
adult content by the major search engines tends to be effective, but the downside is these controls can be easy to disable. If it’s important to
you to really “lock in” safe search settings, a number of parental control software products offer Search “lock in” ability. Check the “Internet
Parental Controls Product Comparison” chart on page 12 and the “Search Engine Product Comparison” chart on page 18.
E-mail
Not all Internet parental control products offer comprehensive tools for managing e-mail. So if managing e-mail is important to you, pay close
attention when selecting an Internet parental controls package, and check the “Internet Parental Controls Product Comparison” chart on page
12 and the “E-mail Parental Controls Product Comparison” chart on page 15.
Instant Messaging
Like e-mail, only some Internet parental control products offer comprehensive tools for managing IM. Like e-mail, you’ll need to check the
Check the “Internet Parental Controls Product Comparison” chart on page 12 and the “IM Product Comparison” chart on page 17 to make sure
the product you want blocks the most common forms of IM, such as AOL and Yahoo. If you want detailed transcripts of IM chats, a filtering
product won’t do – you’ll need monitoring software.
Social Networks
Social Networking sites present a challenge for parental controls, since filters typically only block entire social networks – not individual pages
within a network. So parents have to decide if they want to block all social networking, or allow all social networking and rely on monitoring
software to flag problem behavior or contacts. Nearly all Internet parental control products offer the ability to block specific websites, but if you
want detailed reporting on social networking activity, you’ll probably want more of a monitoring product, or a parental control product
specifically designed for social networks such. Check the “Social Networking Parental Controls Product Comparison” chart on page 16.
Video and Photo Sharing Web Sites
There are hundreds of photo and video sharing sites available on the Internet, and the most popular sites such as YouTube and Flickr draw large
numbers of children. While these sites all offer a great deal of useful content, some of them also openly host pornography. Unfortunately,
parental control options for video and photo sharing sites are poor. Few of these sites offer any meaningful controls over content, and stand-
alone Internet parental control products such as Cyber Patrol or Net Nanny typically only offer the same “block everything or allow everything”
choices as they do for social networks. Check the “Video and Photo Sharing Parental Controls Product Comparison” chart on page 20.
Virtual Worlds
There are no products that provide parental controls for virtual worlds, so it is up to parents to check the safety policies of each site, and decide
which virtual worlds are appropriate for your child. There are hundreds of virtual worlds aimed at children, and most have a “safety” or
“parents” link which informs parents of each site’s policies. Check the “Virtual Worlds Parental Controls Product Comparison” chart on page 19.
GetParentalControls.org Internet Parental Controls Product Comparison 2010

Overview Important Features

This chart lists filtering and monitoring products sold as parental controls, including operating
 Auto Alert. Can be programmed to send automatic e-mail alerts
systems features and security suites. ISP parental controls are listed separately. While each
triggered by specific events, such as viewing an inappropriate web
product has its own strengths and weaknesses, most products are at their core either filtering
page or IM message.
products that offer specialized categories of websites for blocking or monitoring, or
 Block Private Information. Can be configured to blocks the
monitoring products that focus on creating a detailed record of Internet activity and offer very
transmission of private information such as name, phone number,
basic filtering. If you want both very detailed filtering and monitoring, you’ll need to purchase
etc. via IM and e-mail.
two products. The products are ranked by an average review score, drawn from reviews in
 Contact Management. Control over who can contact children via
publications such as PC Magazine, Mac World, and Computer Shopper. Price is based on the
IM, E-mail, and social networks.
annual cost for subscription and software. Some products do not require an annual
 E-mail Block and Monitor. Ability to block or monitor e-mail for a
subscription.
user through an e-mail program such as Outlook, as well as web-
We Recommend: based e-mail such as Hotmail.
 Game Rating Management. Allows the enforcement of gaming
Ages up to 7:
ratings systems, such as ESRB on games played on a computer.
 Use the parental controls in your Windows or Macintosh computer or the parental
 IM Block and Monitor. Allows the blocking or monitoring of
controls provided by your ISP on the most restrictive setting. You can buy a more
Instant Messaging programs, such as Windows Live IM, Yahoo IM,
sophisticated parental control package if you like, but it’s not necessary.
AOL, etc.
 Use a kid-friendly Internet browser, such as KidZui or Kid’oz, or simply direct children to
 Multi Profile. Allows for the creation of multiple user profiles with
age-appropriate sites.
different levels of filtering, blocking, and monitoring.
 P2P Block. Blocks the downloading, installation and use of peer-
Ages 8 to 10:
to-peer file sharing software.
 Get a fully-featured parental control product such as Cyber Patrol, Net Nanny, Safe Eyes,  Safe Search control. Allows for the safe search setting of popular
Norton Family or McAfee Family. search engines such as Bing and Google to be locked in place.
 Enable web filtering and web monitoring of inappropriate sites and Safe Search controls, “Keyword” refers to the ability to block certain keywords from being
and consider blocking IM, e-mail, Social Networking sites and Peer-to-Peer software. entered in all search engines, rather than enforcing search engine
settings.
Ages 11 to 13:  Screen Capture. Ability to record screen captures of all Internet
 Get a fully-featured parental control product such as Cyber Patrol, Net Nanny, Safe Eyes, activity.
Norton Family or McAfee Family.  Social Network Monitor. Ability to record all activity conducted on
 Enable web filtering and web monitoring of inappropriate sites and Safe Search controls, social network sites, such as uploading photos, sending e-mail, etc.
and consider blocking Social Networking sites and Peer-to-Peer software.  Time Management. Ability to limit Internet and/or computer use to
 Either block or monitor IM and e-mail, and enable Contact Management. preset times.
 Web Filter List. Contains a pre-selected list of categorized websites
Ages 14 to 17: for blocking, rather than simply the ability to block websites
 Enable minimal filtering of inappropriate sites with either operating system parental individually, or block through the use of keywords.
controls, ISP controls, or a fully featured product.  Web Monitor. Ability to record the URLs, and in some products the
 Consider a sophisticated monitoring product such as Spector Pro or Pandora. categories, of websites visited.
Product Average Cost Web Web Multi Time Auto Safe Contact Block Social E-mail E-mail IM Screen IM P2P Game Vista XP Mac
Reviews ) (USD) Filter Monitor profile Mgmt Alert Search Mgmt Private Network Block Monitor Block capture Monitor Block Rating
list control Info Monitor Mgmt
CyberPatrol  $39.95 Yes Yes Yes Yes No Keyword No Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes Yes No Yes Yes No
ContentBarrier  $49.95 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No No No Yes
McAfee Family  $39.99 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Keyword Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No Yes Yes No
Net Nanny  $49.95 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes IM only IM only Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Norton Family  FREE Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Web No Yes No Yes No No Yes Yes Yes
PureSight  $59.95 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Keyword No No No No No Yes No Yes No No Yes Yes No
Safe Eyes  $49.95 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes ID only Yes No Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Spector Pro  $99.95 No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Webroot  ½ $39.95 Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No No Web No Web No No No No Yes Yes No
CyberSitter  ½ $39.95 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Keyword No No No Web No Yes No Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
B-Secure  ½ $49.95 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Keyword No Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No No Yes Yes No
IamBigBrother  ½ $29.95 No Yes No No Yes No No No No No Yes No Yes Yes No No Yes Yes No
Sentry  $47.88 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Keyword Yes Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes Yes No Yes Yes No
Blue Coat K9  FREE Yes Yes No Yes No Yes No No No No No No No No No No Yes Yes Yes
iBoss  $39.95 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes No Yes No No Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Web of Trust  FREE Yes No Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No No Yes Yes Yes
KidsWatch  $45.95 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Keyword No Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No No Yes No No
PC Pandora  ½ $69.95 No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes No
iShield Plus  $49.95 Yes Yes No No Yes Keyword No No No Web Web No No No No No No Yes No
D-Link Secure  ½ $30.00 Yes Yes No Yes Yes No No No No Web No Web No No Yes No Yes Yes Yes
FilterPak  ½ $49.95 Yes Yes Yes No No Keyword No No No Web No Web No No No No No Yes No
Apple Mac + No review FREE Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No No Yes No Yes No Yes Yes No No No Yes
Bright Filter No review $39.95 Yes No Yes Yes No Keyword No No No No No No No No No No Yes Yes No
Bit Defender * Review $39.95 Yes No Yes Yes No Keyword IM only Yes No Yes No Yes No No Yes No Yes Yes No
CA Internet * Review $59.95 Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No Web No Web No No No No Yes Yes No
Covenant Eyes No review $54.95 Yes Yes Yes Yes No Keyword No No No No No Yes No No Yes No Yes Yes No
F-Secure * Review $79.95 Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No Web No Web No No No No Yes Yes No
IM View No review $59.95 Yes Yes No No Yes No No No Yes No Yes No No Yes No No Yes Yes No
Kaspersky * Review $79.95 Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No No Yes No Yes Yes No
Livia Review $49.95 Yes Yes Yes No No Keyword No No No Web No No No No No No Yes Yes No
McAfee Total * Review $79.99 Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No No Yes No Yes Yes No
Norton Sec* Review $59.95 Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No Web No Web No No Yes No Yes Yes Yes
OpenDNS No review FREE Yes Yes No No No No No No No Web No Web No No No No Yes Yes Yes
Optenet PC No review $39.95 Yes Yes Yes Yes No Keyword No Yes No Yes No Yes No No Yes No Yes Yes No
Panda Total* Review $89.95 Yes Yes Yes No No Keyword No Yes No No No No No No No No Yes Yes No
PC Tattle Tale No review $49.95 No Yes No No No No No No Yes No Yes No Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes
Safe4Kiz No review $24.99 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Keyword No No No Yes No Yes No No No No Yes Yes No
Trend Micro * Review $69.95 Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No Yes Yes No
WebWatcher No review $97.00 No Yes No Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes No
Windows + No review FREE Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No No Yes No Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes No
GetParentalControls.org ISP Parental Controls Comparison 2010


There are hundreds of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the United States. Many
 Auto Alert. Can be programmed to send automatic e-mail alerts triggered by
offer free parental controls and security products with subscriptions. The most
specific events, such as viewing an inappropriate web page or IM message.
popular ISPs typically offer “security suites” from security software vendors which
 Block Private Info. Can be configured to blocks the transmission of private
include anti-virus, anti-spam, and other security features along with parental
information such as name, phone number, etc. via IM and e-mail.
controls. The drawback to security suite parental controls is that they typically
 Contact Mgmt. Control over who can contact children via IM, E-mail, and social
offer only the most basic parental control functions. Other ISPs, such as AT&T,
networks.
Verizon, and AOL have developed their own parental controls. As the chart shows,
 E-mail Block and Monitor. Ability to block or monitor e-mail for a user through
all of the ISP-provided parental controls offer significantly fewer features than a
an e-mail program as well as web-based e-mail such as Hotmail.
stand-alone parental control product. Popularity ratings from ISP Planet.
 IM Block and Monitor. Allows the blocking or monitoring of Instant Messaging
We Recommend: programs, such as Windows Live IM, Yahoo IM, AOL, etc.
 Multi Profile. Allows for the creation of multiple user profiles with different
Ages up to 7: ISP parental controls are a good solution in conjunction with a
levels of filtering, blocking, and monitoring.
kid safe browser such as KidZui.
 Safe Search control. Allows for the safe search setting of popular search
Ages 8 to 11: ISP parental controls often provide adequate filtering and time
engines such as Bing and Google to be locked in place. “Keyword” refers to the
management, which is often enough for children of this age.
ability to block certain keywords from being entered in search engines, rather
Ages 10 to 13: ISP parental controls may provide a basis for parental controls,
than enforcing search engine settings.
but lack many key features for managing this age group. A stand-alone parental
 Time Mgmt. Ability to limit Internet and/or computer use to preset times.
control suite such as Safe Eyes, Cyber Patrol, or Net Nanny is a better option for
 Web Filter List. Contains a pre-selected list of categorized websites for blocking,
this age group.
rather than simply the ability to block through the use of keywords.
Ages 14 to 17: ISP parental controls may be appropriate for basic filtering.
 Web Monitor. Ability to record the URLs, and in some products the categories,
Many parents will likely want a more comprehensive filtering or monitoring
of websites visited.
product, such as Norton Family or Spector Soft.
Product Provider Web Web Multi Time Auto Safe Contact Block Social E-mail E-mail IM Screen IM P2P Game Vista XP Mac
Filter Monitor profile Mgmt Alert Search Mgmt Private Network Block Monitor Block capture Monitor Block Rating
list control Info Monitor Mgmt
10 Most Popular Internet Service Providers in the United States
AT&T Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No Web No Web No No Yes No Yes Yes No
Roadrunner CA Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No Web No Web No No No No Yes Yes No
Comcast Symantec Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No Web No Web No No Yes No Yes Yes Yes
AOL Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No No Web AOL Web No AOL No No Yes Yes No
United Symantec Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No Web No Web No No Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Qwest Microsoft Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No No Yes No Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes No
Verizon Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No Web No Web No No No No Yes Yes No
Charter F-Secure Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No Web No Web No No No No Yes Yes No
EarthLink Kaspersky Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No No Yes No Yes Yes No
Optimum CA Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No Web No Web No No No No Yes Yes No
E-Mail Parental Controls Product Comparison 2010
All of the products in this chart include management of e-mail as part of a
 Auto Alert. Can be programmed to send automatic e-mail alerts triggered by specific
broader Internet parental controls package. So if managing e-mail is
events, such as receiving a message with inappropriate language.
important to you, pay close attention when selecting an Internet parental
 Block POP3/SMTP. Allows the blocking of POP3/SMTP e-mail programs, such as Outlook.
controls package. Important issues to consider when selecting a product:
 Block Web Mail. Allows the blocking of web-based e-mail, such as Hotmail and Yahoo
 Filtering of e-mail based on words is generally ineffective, so you Mail.
need to decide if you want to block e-mail entirely or rely on  Record POP3/SMTP. Allows the recording of POP3/SMTP e-mail programs, such as
monitoring e-mail. Outlook.
 To be truly effective, a product must be able to manage both  Record Web Mail. Allows the recording of web-based e-mail, such as Hotmail and Yahoo
POP3/SMTP e-mail (such as Outlook), as well as web-based e-mail. Mail.
 Record Attachments. Allows the viewing of e-mail attachments.
We Recommend:  Block Private Info. Can be configured to block the transmission of private information
such as name, phone number, etc. via e-mail.
Ages up to 7: Children this age generally don’t need e-mail.
 Contact Management. Control over who can contact children via e-mail.
Ages 8 to 10: A dedicated e-mail account with “white list” contact
 Filter E-mail. Can block profane or inappropriate words of phrases in e-mail.
management.
 Time Management. Ability to limit Internet use to preset times.
Ages 11 to 13: A dedicated e-mail account with “white list” contact
management, along with monitoring.
Ages 14 to 17: Monitoring as appropriate.
Product Average Reviews Cost Multi Time Auto Contact Block Block Record Block Record Filter Record Stealth Vista XP Mac
(USD) profile Mgmt Alert Mgmt Private POP3 / POP3 / Web Web E-mail Attach. Mode
Info SMTP SMTP Mail Mail
Content Barrier  $49.95 Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No No No Yes
Cyber Patrol  $39.95 Yes Yes No No Yes Yes No Yes No No No No Yes Yes No
McAfee Family  $39.99 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes No
Net Nanny  $49.95 Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No Yes No No No No Yes Yes Yes
Safe Eyes  $49.95 Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes ID only Yes No Yes No No Yes Yes Yes
Spector Pro  $99.95 Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
B-Secure  ½ $49.95 Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No Yes No Yes No No Yes Yes No
Guardian  ½ $39.95 No No Yes No No No Yes No Yes No No Yes No Yes No
IamBigBrother  ½ $29.95 No No Yes No No No Yes No Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No
PC Pandora  ½ $69.95 Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No
IM View  ½ $59.95 No No Yes No No No Yes No Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No
Optenet PC $39.95 Yes Yes No No Yes Yes No Yes No No No No Yes Yes No
PC Tattle Tale $49.95 No No No No No No Yes No Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Sentry $47.88 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No Yes Yes No
WebWatcher $97.00 No Yes Yes No No Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Social Network Parental Controls Product Comparison 2010
 Auto Alert. Can be programmed to send automatic e-mail alerts triggered
Social Networking sites present a challenge for parental control products, since filters
by specific events, such as an inappropriate profile or receiving inappropriate
typically only block entire social networks – not individual pages within a network. So
messages.
parents have to decide if they want to block all social networking, or allow all social
 Block Private Info. Can be configured to block the transmission of private
networking and rely on monitoring software to flag problem behavior or contacts.
information such as name, phone number, etc. via IM and e-mail. Some
Nearly all Internet parental control products offer the ability to block specific websites,
programs monitor for the display of private information, but send an alert
so if all you want is to block access to popular social networking sites such as Facebook
message through e-mail rather than blocking the information.
and MySpace, you do not need a specialized program for social networks – a good
 Contact Management. Control over who which members of a social network
filtering product will do. But if you want detailed reporting on social networking
can contact your children via social networks.
activity, you’ll probably want more of a monitoring product such as Spector Pro or
 Monitor Social Network Visits. Provides a detailed report of online activities
Norton Family Online.
while a child visits a social network.
We Recommend:  Social Network E-mail Block and Monitor. Ability to block or monitor e-mail
accessed through a social network. (If the social network itself is blocked, the
Ages up to 13: Social Networks are not recommended for this age group, use a filter
social network e-mail would of course be blocked)
to block.
 Social Network Chat Block and Monitor. Allows blocking or monitoring of
Instant Messaging within social networks. (If the social network itself is
Ages 14 to 17: Several products specialize in monitoring behavior on social
blocked, the social network IM would of course be blocked)
networks, including Norton Family, McAfee Family, and Spector Pro.
 Screen Capture. Ability to record screen captures of all Internet activity.
 MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, and Twitter Management. The program has
specific built-in options for managing these social network programs.
Product Average Cost Block Monitor Multi Time Auto SN Block SN SN E-mail SN Screen SN Chat My Face BeBo Twitter Vista XP Mac
Reviews (USD) list of SN visits profile Mgmt Alert Contact Private Email Monitor Chat capture Monitor Space Book Mgmt Mgmt
SN s Mgmt Info Block Block Mgmt Mgmt
McAfee Family  $39.99 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Alerts No Yes No No Yes No No No No Yes Yes No
Net Nanny  $49.95 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No Yes No Yes No No Yes Yes Yes
Norton Family  FREE Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Safe Eyes  $49.95 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Alerts No Yes Yes No Yes No No No No Yes Yes Yes
Spector Pro  $99.95 No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes
Guardian  ½ $39.95 No Yes No No Yes No No No Yes No Yes Yes No No No No No Yes No
PC Pandora  ½ $69.95 No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes No Yes Yes No No No No Yes Yes No
IM View $59.95 Yes Yes No No Yes No No No Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes No
PC Tattle Tale $49.95 No Yes No No No No No No Yes No Yes Yes No No No No Yes Yes Yes
WebWatcher $97.00 No Yes No Yes Yes No No No Yes No Yes Yes No No No No Yes Yes No
The Independent Guide to Online Safety Technology Instant Message Parental Controls Product Comparison 2010

All of the products in this chart except for SafeChat include management of IM
as part of a broader Internet parental controls package. There is really no
by specific events, such as viewing an inappropriate IM message.
reason to buy a stand-alone IM parental control product unless IM is the only
 Block Private Info. Can be configured to block the transmission of private
program you want to manage. Most of the products in this chart offer the
information such as name, phone number, etc. via IM.
ability to either block or monitor IM programs. Price is based on the annual cost
 Contact Management. Control over who can contact children via IM.
for subscription and software.
 Block All IM. Allows the blocking of Instant Messaging programs.
We Recommend:  Record Chats. Can record messages sent and received by Instant Messaging
programs, such as Windows Live IM, Yahoo IM, AOL, etc.
Ages up to 7: IM is generally not appropriate for children in this age group.
 Multi Profile. Allows for the creation of multiple user profiles with different
Ages 8 to 10: IM is generally not appropriate for children in this age group.
levels of filtering, blocking, and monitoring.
Ages 11 to 13: Contact management with monitoring.
 Filter Words. Can block inappropriate words of phrases in chats.
Ages 14 to 17: Monitoring as appropriate.
 Time Mgmt. Ability to limit Internet and/or computer use to preset times.
Product Average Cost Multi Time Auto Stealth Block Contact Block Records Filter My AIM Yahoo MSN ICQ Google Vista XP Mac
Reviews (USD) profile Mgmt Alert Mode Private Mgmt all IM Chats words Space (Live) Talk
Info IM
Net Nanny  $49.95 Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Content Barrier  $49.95 Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes
Cyber Patrol  $39.95 Yes Yes No No Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
McAfee Family  $39.99 Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes No
Norton Family  FREE Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
PC Tattle Tale  $49.95 No No No Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Safe Eyes  $49.95 Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Spector Pro  $99.95 Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
B-Secure  ½ $49.95 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No
CyberSitter  ½ $39.95 Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes
Guardian  ½ $39.95 No No Yes Yes No No No Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No
IamBigBrother  ½ $29.95 No No Yes Yes No No No Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No
KidsWatch  $45.95 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No
PC Pandora  ½ $69.95 Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Sentry  $47.88 Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
SafeChat * $34.95 Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No
WebWatcher $97.00 No Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
* SafeChat is a “stand-alone” products that only manages instant messaging and do not perform other functions.
The Independent Guide to Online Safety Technology Search Engine Parental Controls Comparison 2010

All popular search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo offer parental controls, which typically
 Block Explicit Words Being Entered. Search engine blocks the
block search results based on keywords and using site black lists. The filtering of adult content by the
user from searching on explicit words or phrases.
major search engines tends to be effective, but the downside is these controls can be easy to disable.
 Block Results. Search engine does not show explicit results.
Google and Yahoo offer password protection setting for filtered search, which is generally effective
 Filter Settings. Search engine offers a choice of filtering
for younger users but is fairly easy for a knowledgeable teen to disable. Additionally, safe search
settings, typically “Strict,” “Moderate,” and “No Restrictions.”
settings only apply to the Internet browser you apply them to, so if you have both Internet Explorer
 Password Protection. Ability to fix settings with a password.
and Firefox, you’ll need to configure search settings in both browsers. If it’s important to you to
 Multi-Browsers Settings. Ability to lock the search engine
really “lock in” safe search settings, a number of parental control software products such as Net
settings so they cannot be overridden by switching browsers
Nanny and Safe Eyes offer this ability. Another option is to direct children to “walled garden” kids
 Pre-screened Content. Search results are limited to pre-
search engines where only pre-screened, age-appropriate sites are displayed in search results. The
approved, appropriate content.
drawback of “walled gardens” is that a lot of good content is going to be excluded.
We Recommend:
Ages up to 7: Direct children to kids search engines, such as Kids.Yahoo.com
Ages 8 to 10: Use locked down filtered searches, preferably with a filtering product.
Ages 11 to 13: Lock down filtered search engines with a filtering product
Ages 14 to 17: Lock down filtered search engines with a filtering product or monitor use.
Product Blocks Explicit Block Filter Filtered Filtered text Filtered video Password Multi-Browser Settings Pre-screened Content
Words Being Explicit settings image search search Protect
Entered Results search
Most Popular Search Engines
Ask No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No
AOL Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No
Bing Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No
Google Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
Yahoo Limited Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
Popular Kids Search Engines
AskKids.com Yes Yes NA Yes Yes Yes NA NA Some
Fact Monster No Yes NA NA Yes NA NA NA All
Safe Search Kids Yes Yes NA NA Yes NA NA NA Some
Kids.AOL.com Yes Yes NA NA Yes NA NA NA All
Kids.Yahoo.com Yes Yes NA NA Yes NA NA NA All
Virtual Worlds Parental Controls Product Comparison 2010
There are no products that provide parental controls for virtual worlds, so it is up to parents to check
 Block Users. Ability of users to block contacts from
the safety policies of each site, and decide which virtual worlds are appropriate for your child. There
other members.
are hundreds of virtual worlds aimed at children and teens, and most have a “safety” or “parents” link
 Filtered Chat/E-mail. Provides chat and/or e-mail that
which informs parents of each site’s policies. Many of the virtual worlds aimed at younger children
filters out offensive words and phrases.
provide very safe environments that are tightly controlled by adults. Virtual worlds catering to teens
 Moderators. Virtual world employs moderators to
are generally less restrictive. Popularity ratings are from Kzero Metaverse.
screen online conversations and postings.
We Recommend:  Parent Account Access. Default ability for parents to
view and change the account settings at any time.
Ages up to 7: Most of the popular sites aimed at preteens are great for children this age.
 Personal Info Block. Blocks the display of personal
Ages 8 to 10: Many of these sites are enjoyable for kids this age.
information, such as phone number, address, etc.
Ages 11 to 13: Tweens should limit participation to preteen virtual worlds.
 Phrase Only Chat. Specialized form of chat where
Ages 14 to 17: The most popular teen virtual worlds may contain some moderate explicit content.
children are only allowed to select from a preset
Adult virtual worlds such as Second Life contain very explicit content and are inappropriate for minors.
collection of words and phrases.
Product Parent Account Phrase Only Time Limits Filtered Chat/Mail Parental Personal Moderators Block users Report
Access Chat Chat/ Block Consent Info Abuse
Mail Required Block Button
10 Most Popular Virtual Worlds for Preteens (8-12)
BarbieGirl Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
BuildaBearville No Yes No NA Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Club Penguin Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes No No
Free Realms Yes Yes Yes NA Yes Yes Yes No No Yes
Fusion Fall Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
NeoPets Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Niktropolis Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Poptropica No Yes No NA No No Yes No No No
Webkinz No Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes
WhyVille No No No Yes No Yes No Yes Yes Yes
10 Most Popular Virtual Worlds for Teens (13-17)
Gaia No No No Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes
Girl Sense Yes No No No No No No Yes Yes Yes
Go Super Model No No No Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Habbo No No No Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes
Meez No No No No No No No No No No
Ourworld Yes Yes No Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes
Planet Cazmo No Yes No Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes
Star Doll No No No Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Taatu No No No Yes No No No Yes No Yes
Wee World No No No Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes
The Independent Guide to Online Safety Technology Video & Photo Sharing Parental Controls Product Comparison 2010

There are hundreds of photos and video sharing sites available on the Internet, but the most popular sites, such
 Block Results. Search engine does not
as YouTube and Flickr draw large numbers of children, especially teens. While these sites all offer a great deal of
show explicit results.
fun and useful content appropriate for children, some of them also openly host inappropriate content, including
 Block Words. Search engine blocks the
pornography. Unfortunately, parental control options for video and photo sharing sites are poor. Few of these
user from searching on explicit words or
sites offer any meaningful controls over access to content, and stand-alone Internet parental control products
phrases.
such as Cyber Patrol or Net Nanny typically only offer the same “block everything or allow everything” choices as
 Filter Settings. Search engine offers a
they do for social networks. If you are concerned about children accessing these sites, you should purchase
choice of filtering settings, typically
either a filtering or monitoring parental control product, depending on if you want to manage these sites by
“Strict,” “Moderate,” and “No
filtering or by monitoring. Video market share from Nielsen, photo market share from ComScore.
Restrictions.”
We Recommend:  Lock-In Settings. Ability to lock the
search settings so they cannot be
Ages up to 7: Block these sites with a filter and redirect to age- appropriate sites like ZuiTube.com.
overridden without a password.
Ages 8 to 11: Block these sites with a filter and redirect to age- appropriate sites like ZuiTube.com.
 Removes Explicit Content. Site removes
Ages 10 to 13: Either block these sites with a filter, monitor user, or use under supervision.
explicit content upon discovery.
Ages 14 to 17: Monitor use as appropriate.
Blocks Block Filter Removes Account Password Lock-in Pre-screened

Product Comparison Words Results settings Explicit Required to Protect Settings Content
Content view Explicit Settings
YouTube Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No
Hulu No No No No Yes NA NA Yes
Facebook Videos No No No Yes NA NA NA No
Microsoft Videos Yes Yes Yes No No No No No
Yahoo Video Yes Yes Yes No No NA Yes No
MySpace Video No No No Yes NA NA NA No
Photobucket Yes Yes No Yes NA NA NA No
Flickr No No No No Yes No No No
Picasa No No No No No No NA No
Webshots No No No Yes NA NA NA No
The Independent Guide to Online Safety Technology Kid Safe Browsers Product Comparison 2010

Customized “Kid Safe” web browsers such as KidZui have become a popular option for parents in recent
 Pre-Screened Sites. Offers default access
years. These programs create a “walled garden” of age-appropriate content that has been pre-screened by
to ONLY a selection of pre-screened sites.
reviewers. Kid safe browsers then offer parents a trade-off: they greatly reduce the risk a child will be
 Lock Out Other Browsers. Ability to
exposed to inappropriate content, but at the same time restrict access to a large amount of innocuous
prevent child from launching other
content. Therefore, kid safe browsers are most appropriate for younger children. The products are ranked
browsers, such as Internet Explorer or
by an average review score adjusted to a 5 star scale and are drawn from reviews in publications such as PC
Firefox.
Magazine, Mac World, and Computer Shopper. Price is based on the annual cost for subscription and
 Add/Delete Sites. Ability to add or delete
software. Some products do not require an annual subscription.
sites from the approved list.
 Contact Management. Manages who your
child can communicate with online.
We Recommend:
 Monitor Activity. Ability to view a history
Ages up to 7: Ideal for children this age. of sites visited by the child.
Ages 8 to 11: Still appropriate, but at this age parents should start using filtered Internet access as well.  Time Limits. Ability to set limits on the
Ages 10 to 13: May interest some this age. times a child can use the Internet.
Ages 14 to 17: Unlikely to be of interest to teens.
Product Average Annual Pre- Add/ Monitor Contact Time Limits Lock Out Other Vista XP Mac
Reviews Cost Screened Delete Activity Management Browsers
Sites Sites
KidRocket   Free Yes Yes No Yes Yes No Yes Yes No
KidZui   Free/$39 Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes
Kido’Z   Free Yes Yes No NA Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Buddy Browser   $19.95 Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
KidView  ½ $39.95 Yes Yes No Yes Yes No Yes Yes No
Peanut Butter PC  ½ $24.95 No Yes No NA No Yes Yes Yes No
GetParentalControls.org Mobile Phones Parental Controls Product Comparison 2010


Mobile phones now include many features of online access, so most of the same cautions you should take
with Internet access should also apply. Mobile phones also carry the potential problem of “sexting” – the  Block Web. Ability to block all Internet access.
sending of sexual images via mobile phone cameras. Fortunately, all major mobile phone providers in the  Block Sending Photos. Ability to block the taking of photos
United States offer parental controls, though features vary and there is usually a small monthly fee in or the sending of photos.
addition to the charges to the phone itself. Some phones such as Firefly and Kajeet are specifically designed  Contact White List. Ability to restrict contacts to a list of
for children, and offer much tighter controls and are especially good for younger children. Monitoring of approved phone numbers.
mobile calls and messages is a controversial area of online safety, as this involves privacy concerns but may  Filtered Internet. Internet filtering of mobile web browsers.
be necessary in some circumstances. Mobile phone providers have chosen to not offer monitoring  GPS Locator. Ability to see via a web browser where a
capabilities, which they have left to software companies. Unless you want to monitor text messages and e- mobile phone is located.
mail sent via mobile phone, there really is little reason to buy additional software, since mobile providers  GPS Zoning. Ability to be alerted when a child’s phone
typically offer the most popular features. Price is based on the cost of subscription, which in many cases will leaves a predetermined geographic area.
vary with providers depending on which plan you buy.  Monitor Text Messages. Ability to read text messages that
We Recommend: have been sent or received.
Ages up to 7: Mobile phones are generally not appropriate for children in this age group.  Purchase Restrictions. Ability to limit types of purchases
Ages 8 to 10: Mobile phones designed for children, such as Kajeet or Firefly. through the phone, such as ringtones.
Ages 11 to 13: Phone with a contact white list, GPS locator. Block sending photos, Internet access and  Time Management. Ability to limit the times the phone may
texting. be used.
Ages 14 to 17: Phone with a GPS locator and purchase restrictions. Consider monitoring if appropriate.
Product Average Cost Block Block Block Contact Contact Filtered GPS GPS Monitor Monitor Monitor Purchase Time Usage Mobile OS
Reviews (USD) Web Sending Text White Black Internet Locator Zone Call Logs Phone Texts Restrict Mgmt Allowance
Photos List List Calls
Mobile Phone Providers with Parental Controls
AT&T + $4.95/mo Yes No Yes No Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes Yes Texts Only
Firefly Varies Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes NA No No Yes No No Yes No Yes
iPhone Varies Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes No Yes No No Yes No No
Kajeet Varies Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes No No Yes Yes Yes
Sprint +$5.00/mo Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes No No
T-Mobile Varies Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No No Yes Yes Yes
Verizon + $5-15/mo Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes
Parental Control Software for Mobile Phones
SMobile  ½ + $29.95/yr No No Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No No No Win; sym; Blk
Mobile Sentry  +£5.99 UK Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No No Yes Symbian
MobiCIP  +$14.98/yr iPhone iPhone iPhone No No Yes iPhone No iPhone No No iPhone No No iPhone
MyKidIsSafe Review +$5.99/mo No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes No Win; sym; Blk
MobileWatchDog No Review +$9.95/mo No No Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes No Yes No No No Win; sym; Blk
Net Nanny Mobile No Review + $29.95/yr No No Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No No No Win; sym; Blk
Safe Eyes Mobile Review +$19.95 iPhone iPhone iPhone No No Yes iPhone No iPhone No No iPhone No No iPhone
GetParentalControls.org Gaming Consoles Parental Controls Product Comparison 2010


Many parents don’t realize that a gaming console can also be an
 Auto Alert. Can be programmed to send automatic e-mail alerts triggered by
Internet gateway – including to the web and chat rooms. Some
specific events, such as attempting to access inappropriate content.
gaming consoles can be used to watch DVDs or TV as well.
 Block Communications. Allows the blocking of chat and messaging through a
Fortunately, all major gaming consoles now come with parental
gaming console.
controls – no need to buy or even download anything. Different
 Block DVD. Block the playing of DVDs on the console.
gaming consoles offer different options, but all offer the ability to
 Block Internet. Block all online access.
enforce the ESRB game ratings, as well as shut off Internet access,
 Block Private Information. Can be configured to block the transmission of private
making them very safe for even young children – when configured
information such as name, phone number, etc.
properly.
 Block Purchases. Can be configured to block purchasing games, etc. on line.
We Recommend:  Contact Management. Control over who can contact children.
 Monitor. Allows the recording of gaming console communications.
Ages up to 7: Use parental controls to enforce age-appropriate
 Multi Profile. Allows for the creation of multiple user profiles with different levels
game ratings, disable Internet access.
of filtering, blocking, and monitoring.
Ages 8 to 10: Use parental controls to enforce age-appropriate
 Rating Enforcement. Allows the restriction of games by ESRB ratings (Everyone,
game ratings, disable Internet access.
Everyone- 10, Teen, etc.)
 Time Management. Ability to limit Internet and/or computer use to preset times.
game ratings, use online features with caution.
 TV/DVD Rating Enforcement. Ability to block movies and TV based on ratings
systems.
game ratings, manage contacts and online interaction.
 Web Filter. Includes a web filter for inappropriate content if the console includes a
web browser.
Product Multi Time Auto Contact Block Rating Block Block Block Monitor Web TV /DVD Block
profile Management Alert Management Private Enforcement Internet DVD Communication filter Rating Purchases
Info Enforcement
Microsoft X Box Yes No No No No Yes Yes No No No No Yes Yes
Microsoft X Box 360 Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes Yes
Nintendo DSi No No No No No Yes Yes NA Yes No No NA Yes
Nintendo Wii No No No No No Yes Yes NA Yes No No NA Yes
Sony PlayStation 2 Yes No No No No No No Yes No No No Yes No
Sony PlayStation 3 Yes No No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Sony PSP Yes No No No No Yes Yes NA Yes No Yes NA Yes
GetParentalControls.org Media Players Parental Controls Product Comparison 2010


Media players such as the iPod were originally designed to play music
files, so the only parental concern was restricting music with explicit
by specific events, such as viewing an inappropriate web page.
lyrics. However, the newest generation of media players are now
 Block Communications. Allows the blocking of chat and other contact
packed with features that allow the playing of movies and in some cases
through a media player.
Internet access. Of the four most popular media player manufacturers,
 Block Internet. Block all online access
only Microsoft’s Zune and Apple’s iPod offer any parental controls at all.
 Block Private Information. Can be configured to block the transmission of
Because media players are a rapidly evolving technology, parental
private information such as name, phone number, etc.
controls are still catching up with the new features.
 Block Purchases. Can be configured to block purchasing games, etc. on
We Recommend: line.
 Contact Management. Control over who can contact children through the
Ages up to 7: Media players are generally not appropriate for
media player.
children in this age group.
 Music Rating Enforcement. Allows the restriction of movies and music
Ages 8 to 10: Make sure the media player does not have Internet
based on ratings systems.
access and block explicit lyrics with music rating enforcement.
 Time Management. Ability to limit media player use to preset times.
Ages 11 to 13: Make sure the media player does not have Internet
 TV/Movie Rating Enforcement. Ability to block movies and TV based on
access and block explicit lyrics with music ratings enforcement.
ratings systems.
Ages 14 to 17: Music ratings enforcement and purchase
 Web Filter. Includes a web filter for inappropriate content if the media
management.
player includes a web browser.
Product Time Auto Contact Block Music Block Block Monitor Web filter TV/Movie Rating Block Purchases
Mgmt Alert Mgmt Private Rating Internet Communication Enforcement
Info Enforce
Apple iPod No No No No Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes
Microsoft Zune No No Yes No Yes Yes Yes No NA Yes Yes
Sandisk Sansa No No No No No No No No NA No No
Creative Zen No No No No No No No No No No No
Using Parental Controls to Address Specific Safety Issues: Cyberbullying, Sexting, Privacy, and Predators
As noted earlier in this guide, parental controls can be powerful tools for helping to protect children, but they are not a substitute for parental
involvement and safety education. Online safety issues such as sexting and cyberbullying may involve technology, but are really behavior issues
– and there is no piece of software parents can download that will fix problem behavior. But parental controls can be an important part of
addressing online behavior problems by alerting parents to problem behavior, and blocking access to potentially problematic Internet resources.
Cyberbullying
The National Crime Prevention Council's definition of cyber-bullying is "when the Internet, cell phones or other devices are used to send or post
text or images intended to hurt or embarrass another person.” Cyberbullying is increasingly recognized as a growing problem among tweens
and teens.
Useful Parental Controls:

 Monitoring Software installed on computers or mobile phones can alert you to bullying behavior.
 Contact Management features on e-mail and IM can help your child block problematic contacts or limit to approved contacts.
 Content Filtering can block websites that might pose potential problems, such as social networks.
Tips:
 Watch for warning signs of being cyberbullied, such as a sudden change in online behavior or a sudden change in mood.
 Instruct your children to talk to you about cyberbullying if they see it occur or become a victim.
 Instruct your children to protect their private information and not to share passwords – even with their “best friend forever.”
 Instruct your children to save messages from cyberbullies, which are important evidence.
For more information:
 Cyberbullying.org
 Cyberbulling.us
 Stop Cyberbullying
Sexting
Sexting is practice among teens of sending sexually explicit messages and photographs over the Internet, particularly with mobile phone
cameras. Sexting can humiliate victims, and when the subject of the photograph is a minor, it is a crime.

 Monitoring Software installed on computers or mobile phones can alert you to problem behavior.
 Contact Management features on mobile phones can help your child block problematic contacts or limit to approved contacts.
 Block Sending Photos feature on many mobile phones can prevent photographs from being forwarded.
Tips:
 Teach your children about appropriate behavior online and appropriate sexual behavior
 Instruct your children on the serious nature of sexting, and the fact that it can be a crime.

 Connect Safely Tips to Prevent Sexting
 Internet Safety 101: Sexting
Privacy
Children and teens sometimes fail to understand the ease with which personal information can be public on the Internet. A child’s name,
address, phone number and other personal information should not be shared with companies, marketers, and adult contacts.

 Block Private Information feature on PC and mobile phones can block the transmission of private information such as name, phone
number, etc. via IM and e-mail.
Tips:
 Become familiar with the privacy policies of websites your children visit.
 Discuss the importance of privacy with your children.
 Instruct your children not to give out personal information.

 Get Net Wise: Privacy Tips
 Wired Safety: Personal Information Tips
 On Guard Online: Kids Privacy
Predators
Children who communicate online may come into contact with adults, some of whom may be sexual predators. Parents can help prepare their
children for this possibility by taking some appropriate precautions.

 Monitoring Software installed on computers or mobile phones can alert you to potentially inappropriate contact.
 Content Filtering can block websites that might pose potential problems, such as social networks.
Tips:
 Discuss with your children the dangers of online predators.
 Instruct your children to never respond to instant messaging or e-mails from strangers.
 iKeepSafe: Warning signs that my child is targeted by an Internet predator
 Internet Safety 101: Predators
About GetParentalControls.org
The purpose of GetParentalControls.org is to address the lack of information parents face when selecting parental control technology by
providing accurate, comprehensive, and unbiased information about parental control technology. GetParentalControls.org is not affiliated with
any company or organization, is run entirely by volunteer effort, and accepts no outside funding and no advertising.
Because GetParentalControls.org strives to provide the most accurate information possible, parental control vendors and customers are
encouraged to send updates and corrections on product information, and we strive to make those updates in a timely manner.
GetParentalControls.org encourages vendors to submit product news and updates, which we may announce on the GetParentalControls.org
blog, and we will also consider products for future evaluation. When GetParentalControls.org conducts product evaluations, vendors will be
notified in advance and provided with a testing specification. Vendors may choose to decline to submit products for evaluation, which will be
noted.
GetParentalControls.org is owned and managed by David Burt, who is responsible for its content. A biography of David Burt is available here.
E-mail: contact@getparentalcontrols.org
Reviews: Parental Controls

Reliable independent product reviews are an essential tool for evaluating parental controls. Included in this summary are all reviews of parental
control products since 2007 appearing in publications such as PC Magazine, Mac World, and Computer Shopper, as well as well-established
review websites such as Top Ten Reviews. The products are ranked by an average review score, which is adjusted to a 5 star scale. Not all
product reviews are given ranks, and in these cases the products are listed alphabetically.
Product Categories
Reviews: Internet Parental Controls
Reviews: Kid Safe Browsers
Reviews: Mobile Phone Parental Controls
All Products:
BitDefender Blue Coat K-9 BSecure Buddy Browser

CA Internet Sec. ChatWatch ContentBarrier Cyber Patrol
Cyber Sitter D-Link FilterPak FSecure
IamBigBrother IBoss IMView IShield
Kajeet Kaspersky KidRocket KidView
Kido’Z KidZui KidsWatch McAfee Family
McAfee Sec MobiCIP MyKidisSafe Net Nanny
Norton Sec Norton Family PC Pandora PeanutButterPC
PureSight Safe Chat Safe Eyes Safe Eyes Mobile
Smobile Sentry Spector Pro Trend Micro WebRoot
Reviews: Internet Parental Controls
Content MacWorld, Aug 2008 (Full Review) ( of 5)

Barrier Summary: If you have a hard time keeping up with your kids and maintaining Parental Controls, ContentBarrier X4 can be a big help.
Average Computer Active, Oct 2007 (Full Review) ( of 5)
Summary: The software offers an impressive degree of control without overwhelming the user with advanced settings and unnecessary fine-

tuning, which makes it very easy to use.
Cyber Computer Shopper, Sep 2007 (Full Review) ( of 5)

Patrol Summary: Apart from one or two small glitches this is a good program, but it's not as good as some others.
Average Top Ten Reviews, Nov 2008 (Full Review) ( of 4)
Summary: Overall, CyberPatrol offers an easy to use filtering solution with quite a bit of versatility and utility. The software isn’t the best

available, but has a unique combination of features and abilities that make it a good choice for effective internet filtering for the whole family.
PC Magazine, Nov 2008 (Full Review) ( of 5)
Summary: CyberPatrol offers flexible and comprehensive parental control. Its IM filtering is innovative, though it needs some tuning. You can
use it in home, school, library, or business settings. It's an especially good choice for school or library.
McAfee Web User, Oct 2009 (Full Review) ( of 5)
Family Summary: Products like this will never be perfect. The problem is that for every site on the ‘block' list, there will be others that have yet to be
Protection identified. But on the whole, Family Protection does a good job of preventing access based on the administrator's criteria.
Computer Shopper, June 2009 (Full Review) (7.7 of 10)
Average Summary: McAfee Family Protection lacks some advanced options parents might expect, but its attractive price may be enough to sway them.
 PC Pro, Dec 2009 (Full Review) ( of 6)
Summary: The blocking tools offer impressive flexibility. Our teenage tester was thwarted from accessing porn via Google Images, nor could
he perform searches for sexually-explicit material.
Net PC Magazine, Feb 2010 (Full Review) (½ of 5)
Nanny Summary: Net Nanny remains PCMag's Editors' Choice for traditional parental control. It does everything you'd expect and goes beyond the
competition in real-time per-page content analysis and resistance to attack by budding hackers.
Average PC Magazine, Feb 2008 (Full Review) ( of 5)
 Summary: Net Nanny 5.6 is powerful and flexible. Its content filtering, IM monitoring and time scheduler are hardened, so kids can't
circumvent them, and the Flash-based activity reports are outstanding.
Computer Shopper, Sep 2007 (Full Review) ( of 5)
Summary: This is a good program and passed all our tests, but it can be overly restrictive.
PC Magazine, Nov 2008 (Full Review) (½ of 5)
Summary: Net Nanny does everything a parental-control utility should do. It also offers unique features like secure Web-traffic filtering and
ESRB-based game control. Balancing privacy and security, it can record IM conversations only if they seem dangerous. Editors' Choice.
Top Ten Reviews, Nov 2008 (Full Review) ( of 4)
Summary: ContentWatch offers Net Nanny with the cutting edge technology to create the ultimate internet safety software. Net Nanny has
combined all the right features (and then some) in an easy-to-use internet filtering solution. Net Nanny is the best.
Computer Shopper, May 2009 (Full Review) (8.5 of 10)
Summary: If you need help controlling your child's Net access, Net Nanny can provide an abundance of tools, though you'll have to purchase a
yearly subscription for each PC you want to cover.
Laptop, May 2008 (Full Review) ( of 5)
Summary: Although it’s more difficult to configure than other parental control programs, Net Nanny offers a very good array of protective
tools for children.
Mac Life, Oct 2009 (Full Review) ( of 5)
Summary: Net warden? Maybe, but you can decide how intrusive you need the app to be. And with the Net Nanny securely in place, parents
can go back to doing whatever it was they were doing while their children surf the Web safely.
Web User, July 2009 (Full Review) ( of 5)
Summary: Net Nanny is synonymous with parental control software and rightly so – it’s as good as these things get.
Online PC Magazine, May 2009 (Full Review) ( of 5)
Family. Summary: This free Web-based product has everything you'd expect in a parental-control system and more. It blocks bad sites, controls time
Norton on the computer, supervises chat, and even watches social network use on all your PCs and Macs. Settings are stored in the cloud, making
remote configuration and reporting simple.
Average BusinessWeek, July 2009 (Full Review) ( ½ of 5)
 Summary: Simply designed site lets parents monitor a variety of surfing activities for all in the household. Default settings are restrictive, and
unblocking sites can take hours. The software is free for the rest of the year, so it's worth a try despite some drawbacks.
Computer Shopper, May 2009 (Full Review) (8.4 of 10)
Summary: Though it lacks some of the advanced features found in the leading parental-control programs, OnlineFamily.Norton moves beyond
the competition in encouraging communication between parents and kids.
PC Pro, Dec 2009 (Full Review) ( of 6)
Summary: The blocking tools offer impressive flexibility. Our teenage tester was thwarted from accessing porn via Google Images, nor could
he perform searches for sexually-explicit material
PureSight Computer Shopper, Aug 2009 (Full Review) (8 of 10)
Average Summary: PureSight enters the parental control software competition with a powerful filtering engine and an easy-to-understand interface.

Safe Eyes PC Magazine, Feb 2010 (Full Review) ( of 5)

Summary: Safe Eyes 6.0 is a very good parental control system. If you need a product that works on both Macs and PCs, Safe Eyes is your best
Average choice.
 Laptop, May 2008 (Full Review) ( ½ of 5)
Summary: Safe Eyes’ easy-to-control interface and powerful controls, especially for social networking protection, will leave parents anxiety-
free.
PC Magazine, Jun 2007 (Full Review) ( of 5)
Summary: Safe Eyes 5 does everything you'd expect a parental control utility to do and more. Its Web-based protection covers up to three
computers (PC or Mac) and allows remote management from a browser. And this is one tough cookie. The kids won't break its protection.
Computer Shopper, Sep 2007 (Full Review) ( of 5)
Summary: As with the other programs here, Safe Eyes lets you block or allow specific programs and websites. This feature worked fine, too.
This is a good piece of software.
Wired, Oct 2008 (Full Review)
Summary: Overall, if you are looking for internet blocking/filtering (parental control software), SafeEyes brings a good suite of capabilities
along with a high degree of customization.
Top Ten Reviews, Nov 2008 (Full Review) ( ½ of 5)
Summary: Safe Eyes has a lot convenient features to protect your family, organized in an attractive interface. Whether you are using it in a
home setting or for a business, Safe Eyes is easily scalable to the number of people you want to protect and monitor. It’s also easy to customize
and use from anywhere.
Spector Mac Life, July 2009 (Full Review) ( of 5)
Pro Summary: Spector Pro’s software license agreement requires you to inform anyone using the Mac that their activities are being monitored—
this is powerful software, so don’t use it for evil! But to keep an eye on who’s talking to your kids online or which websites your employees are
Average visiting, Spector Pro just works.
 PC Magazine, Jul 2009 (Full Review) ( of 5)
Summary: While it does include features related to controlling what your kids do on the computer, Spector Pro's real power is its
comprehensive activity monitoring. Mom and Dad can view surfing history, IM conversations, passwords, e-mail—everything!
MacWorld, Jun 2009 (Full Review) ( ½ of 5)
Summary: Spector Pro mac 2009 is a powerful keylogging tool with the additional capability of giving you a visual representation of everything
that is being done on a monitored computer at any point in time.
Top Ten Reviews, Mar 2009 (Full Review) ( of 4)
Summary: Spector Pro can help you effectively and efficiently monitor all online activity. With the best lineup of features and great tools,
Spector Pro is a complete monitoring software solution.
Tech Radar, Jun 2009 (Full Review) ( of 5)
Summary: Spector Pro offers flexible configuration options, and we found its recording accurate. And while we managed to halt it through a
little-known utility, it remained hidden from tools like Activity Monitor.
BSecure PC Magazine, Nov 2007 (Full Review) (½ of 5)
Average Summary: Bsafe Online is a tough, effective, and comprehensive parental-control solution. It has a few rough edges, but the company is
 ½ already working on improvements. The current version is a worthy product; the next version could be a knockout.
Cyber Top Ten Reviews, Nov 2008 (Full Review) ( ½ of 4)

Sitter Summary: CYBERsitter is one of the most effective programs you will find for filtering offensive content on the Internet, in emails or in IM
Average conversations. CYBERsitter takes an impressive list of features and combines it with superior customizability and effective filters to create an
effective Internet filter for your home. You won’t be disappointed with CYBERsitter's performance.
 ½
Computer Shopper, Sep 2007 (Full Review) ( of 5)
Summary: This is generally a good program, but a few glitches need to be sorted out before we can wholeheartedly recommend it.
PC Magazine, Dec, 2009 (Full Review) (½ of 5)
Summary: Being a complete rewrite, this edition has the kind of little problems usually associated with a 1.0 release. It still needs some work,
but I'm sure the next version will be much more refined.
iAmBig Top Ten Reviews, Nov 2008 (Full Review) ( of 4)
Brother Summary: IamBigBrother is an excellent product. The user design from the main menu is awesome. The designer used colorful icons for each
Average of the applications that are monitored such as yahoo, AOL, and MSN. IamBigBrother is extremely easy to use, as easy as any of the products
reviewed.
 ½
PC PC Magazine, Feb 2010 (Full Review) ( of 5)

Pandora Summary: While it does include limited blocking of Web sites, PC Pandora's real purpose is comprehensive activity monitoring. Parents can
Average view everything their kids do on the computer; employers can likewise monitor employees. It's a powerful tool that can be used for good or
evil.
 ½
PC Magazine, Jan 2008 (Full Review) (of 5)
Summary: If you want to control the way your kids use the computer, this isn't the product for you. But if you want to secretly monitor every
little thing they do on the computer, PC Pandora will definitely do the job.
Webroot Laptop, May 2008 (Full Review) ( ½ of 5)
Summary: Webroot Parental Controls is a good first step at limiting a child’s time on the computer, but its lack of instant message–logging
Average support gives us pause.
 ½ PC Magazine, Jan 2008 (Full Review) ( of 5)
Summary: Webroot Parental Controls blocks bad Web sites and offers comprehensive scheduling of your children's computer use. Kids can't
get around its site-blocking or program control. There's no real-time notification or Web-based management, though, and the local-network-
only remote client is disappointing.
Blue Coat PC Magazine, May 2009 ( of 5)
K-9 Summary: This parental control utility lacks many features found in the competition, most notably the ability to define different settings for
Average different users. But what it does, it does well. If you can live within its limitations it's a good, free choice.

iBoss C-Net, June 2009 (Full Review) ( of 5)

Average Summary: The iBoss Home Parental Control Wireless-N router offers the most comprehensive tool to manage access to the Internet. Beyond
 that, it's a rather simple router.
iShield Computer Shopper, Sep 2007 (Full Review) ( of 5)

Average Summary: This is a good program, but its filters need to be more consistent.
 PC Magazine, Feb 2008 (Full Review) ( of 5)
Summary: With iShield 2.0, you and your little ones can avoid accidentally viewing porn images online. The software also serves as a browser-
independent Internet time scheduler. Its porn detection is mostly accurate, but it won't stop a teen (or spouse) from surfing for prurient pix.
PC Magazine, Sep 2007 (Full Review) (½ of 5)

Summary: This product will keep your littler ones from accidentally visiting inappropriate sites or viewing naughty pictures, but it won't stand
up to a determined teenager. Teens will also easily evade its limited IM monitoring. The image-recognition feature is very clever, but the
program as a whole needs work.
Kids PC Magazine, Feb 2008 (Full Review) ( of 5)
Watch Summary: KidsWatch shares its ancestry with Webroot Parental Controls, but it has additional features like real-time alerts and IM monitoring.
Average It suffers the same lame remote access feature and several of the same bugs as WPC.

Sentry at PC Magazine, Nov, 2007 (Full Review) (½ of 5)

Home Summary: Sentry At Home can keep the kids off porn sites and stop bad chat or just report any violations to Mom and Dad. Remote monitoring
Average and management is effective, with changes active in near real time. Unfortunately, the product's protection is easily subverted.
PC Advisor, Jan 2009 (Full Review) ( of 5)

Summary: Sentry Parental Controls is in a class of its own and probably represents a level of overkill for most parents, but if you want the most
comprehensive protection software this must be it.
Web of PC Magazine, Aug, 2009 (Full Review) ( of 5)
Trust Summary: The free Web of Trust browser add-on supplies ratings for over 23 million sites, which it derives from user reports, other Web sites,
Average and malware databases. It doesn't rate every site, but it's free and will help you avoid most unreliable sites.

D-Link PC World, July 2007 (Full Review) ( of 5)

Secure Summary: Securespot is brilliant when it works. But it's a service, not a box. And the service doesn't work. Avoid it.
Spot
PC World Australia, Aug 2007 (Full Review) ( ½ of 5)
Average
Summary: In the end, the SecureSpot was satisfactory at performing its intended duty, but it did require a bit of fiddling.
 ½
FilterPak Top Ten Reviews, Nov 2008 (Full Review) (½ of 5)

Average Summary: Overall, this product was a good product.
 ½ Computer Shopper, Sep 2007 (Full Review) ( of 5)
Summary: Even if it did a consistently good job, FilterPak doesn't do enough to justify its price.
imView Top Ten Reviews, Nov 2008 (Full Review) ( of 4)
Average Summary: imView seemed to be more like a monitoring program than a filtering program and lacked many of the features that the other
 ½ products we reviewed included
Safe Chat CNET, Aug 2008 (Full Review) ( of 5)

Summary: Parents with any PC skill level will appreciate its effective and comprehensive tools to help safeguard and monitor their kids'
Average computer activities.
 ½ PC Magazine, Feb 2008 (Full Review) (of 5)
Summary: Safe Chat is an instant-messaging aggregator with parental-control features added. Its free competitors do better at managing
multiple IM accounts. Worse still, the parental-control elements are limited in scope and can be easily avoided by smart kids.
Bit PC Magazine, Sep 2008 (Full Review)
Defender Summary: With the heuristic filtering turned off, the product won't block inappropriate Web sites. With it turned on, it will block tons of valid
Security sites. If you want category-based filtering of inappropriate Internet destinations, turn off this feature and get a real stand-alone parental-
control program like Net Nanny.
CA Reviews
Internet PC Magazine, Dec. 2008 (Full Review)
Security Summary: it's awkward to configure, its e-mailed reports are nearly useless, and the actual choice of sites to block or allow seems capricious.
Suite Plus
F-Secure PC Magazine, Sep 2008 (Full Review)

Internet Summary: Parental control that's so easily defeated is worthless. If you need parental control, try a standalone product.
Security
Kaspersky PC Magazine, Sep 2008 (Full Review)

Internet Summary: If you actually need parental control, leave this feature turned off and get Net Nanny 5.6 or another fully functional parental control
Security program.
McAfee PC Magazine, Dec. 2008 (Full Review)

Total Summary: Parental control is unchanged since last year, which means it's dreadful.
Protection
Norton PC Magazine, Sep 2008 (Full Review)

Internet Summary: Norton's parental-control solution is limited in scope. It doesn't offer the Internet time-control. But at least it does its one task well:
Security Its category-based site blocking is browser-independent, and the kids can't tamper with it
Panda PC Magazine, Dec 2008 (Full Review)

Global Summary: Don't bother installing this feature. If you actually need parental-control software, get a standalone solution like Net Nanny 5.6 or
Protection Safe Eyes 5.0.
Trend PC Magazine, Dec. 2008 (Full Review)

Micro Summary: Trend Pro's parental control is more complete than that of most suites. I especially like its ability to keep the kids from sending out
Internet personal information—even the top standalone parental control programs like Net Nanny and Safe Eyes don't have that.
Security
PC Pro, Dec 2009 (Full Review)
Summary: It didn’t take long for our teen testers to bypass the controls. The “teen” profile claims to block access to adult content, but our
tester found hard-core porn via Google Images.
Kid Safe Browsers Product Reviews

KidRocket Common Sense Media, Nov 2009 (Full Review) ( of 5)
Av. Summary: There's no substitute for parental supervision, but using the KidRocket browser and its features unquestionably makes the World
 Wide Web not as wide and definitely a whole lot safer.
Kido’Z PC World, May, 2009 (Full Review)
Average Summary: In short, KIDO'Z is a slick, well-designed app that's perfect for parents who want to let young kids have a little fun online, but who
 don't want to worry about inappropriate content.
Common Sense Media, Nov 2009 (Full Review) ( of 5)
Summary: On the whole, though, Kido'z is fun, intuitive, imaginative and considerate of the unique needs of both children and their parents.
KidZui PC World, Mar 2009 (Full Review)
Average Summary: KidZui is a keeper. There are plenty of free activities to enjoy, and the numerous Web sites seem perfectly harmless. If you have
 children in your household, give this kid-safe browser a try.
CNET, Dec 2008 (Full Review) ( of 5)
Summary: KidZui offers kids one of the safest methods we've seen to use the Web, while parents get the peace of mind that their children are
learning and having fun while remaining the final arbiter of the Internet experience
Common Sense Media, Nov 2009 (Full Review) ( of 5)
Summary: Parents will like that they can monitor kids' activity (what sites they visit, when they add a friend, and for how long). Kids will like the
user-friendly graphic interface and the ability to tag sites and share them with friends.
PC Magazine, Jun 2008 (Full Review) ( of 5)
Summary: This browser replacement protects kids while offering an engaging multimedia experience and some degree of social networking.
PC Magazine, Dec. 2009 (Full Review) ( ½ of 5)
Summary: KidZui lets youngsters surf the Web, play games, view videos and interact socially online, "just like Mommy and Daddy." The
protected environment is extremely lively, but don't expect your kids to still like it once they've started using computers in school.
Buddy Common Sense Media, Nov 2009 (Full Review) ( of 5)
Browser Summary: Buddy Browser can help parents control what content their kids' access online -- long before kids ever log on. The nifty parental
Average controls allow them to disable other Internet browsers while Buddy Browser is being used; parents also are able to limit the number of hours
 their child uses the Buddy Browser each day.
KidView PC Magazine, July 2008 (Full Review) ( ½ of 5)
Average Summary: Use Hoopah to keep the toddlers out of your files and limit them to kid-friendly Web sites. But when they get older, look for another
 ½ solution.
Peanut PC Magazine, Jun 2008 (Full Review) ( ½ of 5)
Butter PC Summary: With Peanut Butter PC you can give your little ones computer playtime without worrying that they'll disable Windows or delete your
Average important documents. Its protective shields aren't quite perfect, but with a little work it will be a good choice for the preschool set.
 ½ PC Magazine, Dec 2009 (Full Review) ( ½ of 5)
Summary: Peanut Butter PC's two aims are to amuse your kids at the computer and keep them from doing any harm to your files. Though this
version includes more interactive elements, it doesn't strike me as exciting enough for a toddler, and a kid could still accidentally break out.
Mobile Phone Parental Controls Product Reviews

Smobile Top Ten Reviews, July 2009 (Full Review) ( of 4)
Sentry Summary: SMobile Security Shield Parental Control Edition adds a new dimension to mobile security software by making parental control of
Parental the phone paramount.
Controls
Average BlackBerry Sync, Aug. 2009 (Full Review) ( of 5)
 Summary: This is the best comprehensive security software in my opinion that I have seen yet to monitor your child and protect your child,
your child’s information, and the phone.
MobiCip AppCraver, Apr, 2009 (Full Review) (8 of 10)
Average Summary: Mobicip Safe Browser provides a way to customize restriction options according to your preference while still ensuring safe Internet
 browsing for kids. If you have been hesitating to give your child access to an iDevice because of internet capabilities, definitely check out
Mobicip.
Unwired View, Apr, 2009 (Full Review)

Summary: All in all, the browser worked quite well, and is something I would recommend to any concerned parent. There were no differences
in performance whatsoever since it is still working off of the same network.
Kajeet CNET, Mar 2009 (Full Review)
Kids Summary: Overall, we really like that Kajeet is trusting children with real full-fledged cell phones that will transition them easily into adulthood.
Phone It's a pretty decent service that lets parents teach their kids responsible cell phone usage, and add that to its low pay-as-you-go pricing, and we
think the Kajeet service is great for families.
Yahoo Tech, Apr 2007 (Full Review)

Summary: All in all, if you're thinking of outfitting younger kids with cell phones and want to use them well and wisely without running up a
new monthly bill, Kajeet is a well-designed service worth a closer look.
My Kid is SmartPhone, Jun 2009 (Full Review)
Safe Summary: Your kids will hate this software/service, but I think for a concerned parent, MyKidisSafe is essential. You can control almost every
facet of their cell phone use, such as blocking use of it while they’re driving or blocking outbound SMS while driving.
SafeEyes LA Times, Mar. 2009 (Full Review)
Mobile Summary: A protective layer for safer surfing. It's an app worth watching for additional functionality.

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1 Get Parental Controls Product Guide 2010

Parental Controls Product Guide

What are Parental Controls? 3

What are Parental Controls?

What parental controls do I need?

Age 8 to 10 years Old

Age 11 to 13 years old

Age 14 to 17 years old

Using our Product Comparisons

Features of the Product Comparisons:

Internet parental controls

Advantages: Protects entire home network; Harder to circumvent

Filtering and Monitoring

GetParentalControls.org Internet Parental Controls Product Comparison 2010

Overview Important Features

GetParentalControls.org ISP Parental Controls Comparison 2010

Overview Important Features

Overview Important Features

Overview Important Features

Overview Important Features

Blocks Block Filter Removes Account Password Lock-in Pre-screened

Overview Important Features

GetParentalControls.org Mobile Phones Parental Controls Product Comparison 2010

Overview Important Features

GetParentalControls.org Gaming Consoles Parental Controls Product Comparison 2010

Overview Important Features

GetParentalControls.org Media Players Parental Controls Product Comparison 2010

Overview Important Features

Useful Parental Controls:

Useful Parental Controls:

For more information:

Useful Parental Controls:

For more information:

Useful Parental Controls:

Reviews: Parental Controls

BitDefender Blue Coat K-9 BSecure Buddy Browser

Reviews: Internet Parental Controls

Content MacWorld, Aug 2008 (Full Review) ( of 5)

Cyber Computer Shopper, Sep 2007 (Full Review) ( of 5)

Safe Eyes PC Magazine, Feb 2010 (Full Review) ( of 5)

Cyber Top Ten Reviews, Nov 2008 (Full Review) ( ½ of 4)

PC PC Magazine, Feb 2010 (Full Review) ( of 5)

iBoss C-Net, June 2009 (Full Review) ( of 5)

iShield Computer Shopper, Sep 2007 (Full Review) ( of 5)

PC Magazine, Sep 2007 (Full Review) (½ of 5)

Sentry at PC Magazine, Nov, 2007 (Full Review) (½ of 5)

D-Link PC World, July 2007 (Full Review) ( of 5)

FilterPak Top Ten Reviews, Nov 2008 (Full Review) (½ of 5)

Safe Chat CNET, Aug 2008 (Full Review) ( of 5)

F-Secure PC Magazine, Sep 2008 (Full Review)

Kaspersky PC Magazine, Sep 2008 (Full Review)

McAfee PC Magazine, Dec. 2008 (Full Review)

Norton PC Magazine, Sep 2008 (Full Review)

Panda PC Magazine, Dec 2008 (Full Review)

Trend PC Magazine, Dec. 2008 (Full Review)

Kid Safe Browsers Product Reviews

Mobile Phone Parental Controls Product Reviews

Unwired View, Apr, 2009 (Full Review)

Yahoo Tech, Apr 2007 (Full Review)

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